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With most modern games choosing to focus on today’s big trends, the occasional nostalgic title is (ironically) a breath of fresh air. It feels refreshing to have something that is not concerned with wowing you with cinematic presentation, providing a deep, complex story, and whatever other ideas and gimmicks the big games of today might contain.

While most reviews are inclined to credit Zone of the Enders as the work of Hideo Kojima. His association is nothing more than an endorsement for the game rather than something you could truly consider as the mastermind of his work. Instead, the idea for the game came from one of Kojima's disciples. Zone of the Enders has the dubious honor of being called a Hideo Kojima game without much involvement from the man himself. His name only appeared twice during the ending credits...

Gabriel Knight knows mystery. After all, he's a writer who has tried his hand at the literature genre. Unfortunately for him, much like most aspiring authors, the glory he had hoped for never materialized. With no promising career as an author, he has instead become the owner and proprietor of St. George's Rare Books, located in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Gabriel isn't a man to give up on his writing ambitions, however. When a rash of serial killings occurs in the city, Gabriel sets out ...

Halo: Combat Evolved was almost a perfect game, until it tanked halfway through when the Flood showed up. For all of the praise the Halo series gets for ultra-intelligent AI, let’s keep in mind that it’s always been lousy AI that brings these games down: Bungie teases us by pitting us against the genuinely smart Covenant, only to then switch things up and unleash what are essentially fast-moving, mindless zombies in their place. And every game in the trilogy suffered because of it....

I believe rather strongly that moral choices are one of gaming’s most frequently abused clichés, and Infamous is one of the most prominent offenders. There’s the fact that our protagonist, Cole McGrath, is a standalone character who by and large doesn’t represent the player, resulting in a narrative that awkwardly tries to combine role-playing with third-person storytelling. There are the flow-breaking asides in which Cole mentally examines his choices, and there’s the fact that his two o...

Every once in a while there’s a game that’s destined to change things. Perhaps it’s the sort of game that heralds in a new engine, showcases a new standard of graphics, or brings in a unforeseen focus on story and settings. On the other side of the spectrum, there’s game so utterly bad they serve as a large sign to all future developers never, ever to design games in such a way. Often, these failures drown in pre-release hype, chosen to usher in a new age. At worst, a game that symbolizes the re...

The idea of survival horror is a fascinating one. While films are usually identified by aesthetic and emotive theme - fantasy, or action, or science-fiction - games tend to be categorised by activity. Do you shoot in this game? Then it's a shooting game. Do you strategise in it? Then it's a strategy. Videogame genre naming conventions leave very little room for thematics. Maybe that's to be expected. Games are, after all, primarily about doing stuff.

American Dream is the story of Pachio, a smiley little ball with hands and feet, who lands in America with $1000 and a goal of becoming obscenely rich. In the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area, with its casino, Pachio can get do just that without working or paying taxes! AD is littered with casinos chock full of positive-payout gambling machines. Navigating them leads to New Jersey, where Al Capone awaits...

Adventure games suck. Let’s face it. They do. I’m not totally opposed to the idea of an adventure game being good, of course, but the inherent flaw of the genre is that they’re not about gameplay, and that undermines the very purpose of the medium, which is to be interactive entertainment. The few adventure games that have actually held my attention over the years, such as The Longest Journey or Grim Fandango, have done so because of an intriguing story, memorable characters, and c...

For all of the negative things I’m about to say regarding Crackdown, I suppose it’s worth noting that in a modern gaming culture in which open-ended “sandbox” games have become a cliché, Crackdown stands out. It puts us in the shoes of a nameless government agent who can jump very high, and it places us in an enormous city with no shortage of tall buildings to climb. There is literally nowhere we can’t go from square one. As far as freedom goes – and sandbox games are all ab...

For some time now, I've seen the words "realism" and "realistic" when players describe Kengo: Legend of the 9. I immediately think of the two Bushido Blade titles released for the original PlayStation whenever this happens. In those games, there's no life bars or stats of any kind, just two people on screen with swords. Any attack, any swing from either character could be the last. Matches would sometimes end seconds or drag on for minutes due to its realistic rules. While they weren't th...

The more games like Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune I play, the more convinced I am that cover-based gunplay is simply becoming the norm, and that I should stop labeling these games “Gears of War clones.” It’s not like Epic are cursing other development teams for profiting from their idea after their own franchise tanked – this obviously is not the case – so let’s just accept the duck-and-cover system as the natural next step in the long-running shooter genre. That kind of optimism will...

I had a pleasant experience a little while ago: I was exploring a mall I’d never been to before, found an arcade, and located a running Jurassic Park: The Lost World machine. I hadn’t seen the light gun shooter since they removed it from the arcade near my own home years ago, and ever the victim of nostalgia, I decided to spend what I thought would be “just a few quarters” on it. Not only did I invest more time in the game than I’d anticipated, but I actually played alarmingly well, espec...

A year or two ago, I wrote a review for the console version of The Orange Box. In it, I threw around a few colorful adjectives for the first four games in the package, before coming to a halt with Team Fortress 2. I didn’t have Xbox Live at the time (and still don’t), and as such, I could merely say, “I haven’t really played this one, but I’ve heard it’s awesome, so there you go.” I have since spent more time with the PC rendition of Team Fortress 2 than nearly any other gam...

Man's quest for enlightenment and knowledge has lead him to explore the farthest reaches of the known universe. Now one man, and his companions, will venture forth to seek the knowledge that has eluded the people of Britania for so long: The Codex of Ultimate wisdom.

Before Sam, Max and Guybrush, Zak McKracken saved the world from stupidity in LucasArts's first PC/SCUMM engine point-and-click farce. The rough edges are evident, but so are the laughs, and Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (ZM) even manages to poke fun at mistakes a lot of point-and-click games make today. I laughed at the jokes even though a walkthrough tipped them off--a credit to ZM's bizarre graphics and polished absurdism.

Originally, “interactive movies” described games like Dragon’s Lair: literal movies where you pressed a button at the right time to keep watching the movie. In the late 90s, the concept of an “interactive movie” morphed into a hybrid consisting of segregated “movie” and “game” parts. You play for a minute, watch a really long cutscene, continue playing, long cutscene, etc. The story unfolds in the “movie” parts and all of the coolest scenes require no input from the player. The status quo has re...

Wrath of Denethenor seems to be Sierra's attempt to do Ultima II right the second time. Dying's tougher, and instead of time periods, your lone character moves from one world to the next. Unforunately, the formula's apparent: talk to king, beat up monsters, get better armor and weapons, steal a boat in plain view, and move to the next world. The outside's too black-and-white, and the inside's too orange. The keyboard controls are bizarre alphabet soup even by 80s standards, and sim...

While you can only venture as far as the plot will allow, you never really feel restricted because of the ramped up difficulty in each new area. For example, you can’t pass through Danek-infested Fort Gilan without Pottle to reveal the secret passage. But once you enter it, the monsters within grow significantly in strength. You’ll likely die often just trying to raise levels, but, like any RPG, the path becomes manageable once your skills have improved.